Matthew 6:7–8
That is why Christ urges that prayers be made briefly. He knows the mind is easily pulled aside and led astray by empty thoughts and cares, especially at the time of prayer. He commands us to ask God soberly and quickly for what we seek — not by announcing everything we happen to want. That is extreme mind-harm. God knows what we need even before we ask.
“Battology” (Matthew 6:7–8) means many words. It is named from a certain Greek, Battus, who made long, many-lined hymns to the idols, full of the same thing said over again. Battology is speech outside the good. The ancients call many-speaking battology from someone so named who made many-lined prayers to the idols and said the same words through one set of expressions after another.
Greek
∆ιὰ τοῦτο ὁ Χριστὸς παρα κελεύεται διὰ συντόμου τὰς προσ ευχὰς ποιεῖσθαι, ἐπειδήπερ οἶδε τὸν νοῦν εὐπαράφορον ὄντα καὶ δι' ἐννοιῶν καὶ φροντίδων ματαιῶν ἀποπλανώμενον, μάλιστα ἐν τῷ τῆς προσευχῆς καιρῷ. καὶ παραγ γέλλει νηφαλέως καὶ ταχέως αἰτεῖν τὸν θεὸν ἃ ζητεῖ μὴ πάντα ὅσα θέλει ἀναγγέλλοντα· τοῦτο γὰρ τῆς ἄκρας ἐστὶ φρενοβλαβείας· οἶδε γὰρ ὁ θεὸς καὶ πρὸ τοῦ ἡμᾶς αἰτῆσαι τίνων χρῄζομεν. βαττολογία δὲ λέγεται ἡ πολυλογία ἀπὸ Βάττου τινὸς Ἕλληνος μακροὺς καὶ πο λυστίχους ὕμνους ποιήσαντος εἰς τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ ταυτολογίαν ἔχοντας. βαττολογία ἐστὶ τὸ ἔξω τοῦ καλοῦ. Τὴν πολυλογίαν καλοῦσιν οἱ παλαιοὶ βαττολογίαν ἀπό τινος οὕ τως ὀνομαζομένου πολυστίχους εὐ χὰς ποιήσαντος εἰς τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τοὺς αὐτοὺς λόγους λέγοντος δι' ἑτέρων τε καὶ ἑτέρων λέξεων.
About this text
Catena fragments on Matthew (CPG 5206). Contents follow Matthew chapter and verse. Edition fragment numbers stay in About this text and under each passage.
English follows the named copy-text (Aegean/khazarzar Migne PG 72 extract). Other prints were checked as noted; no silent merge of recensions.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 72 Commentarii in Matthaeum (Aegean Digital Patrologia / khazarzar) (Greek · CPG 5206 catena fragments (290 parsed heads))
- Checked print matia.gr mirror of same Aegean extract (Greek · Byte-identical PDF; integrity check only)
- Checked print Internet Archive PG 72 volume OCR (bim … 1859_72) (Greek (OCR damaged) · Locus confirmation only; not used as reading text)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.